Today I'm feeling pretty good (although I said that yesterday but later found myself snivelling like a toddler at bedtime, with a tired leg and delayed mild shock that I'd actually had an operation and my knee had been cut into and poked about). However, today I am feeling pretty good - I took one ibuprofen this morning and haven't needed one since, knee is looking slightly less lumpy through the tubi grip and I'm consistently getting 90 degrees flexation (I can almost sit at a table normally!). It's not easy though! To hold my leg in that bent position while lying down makes my quad muscle really ache! The weirdest thing is trying to do whole leg raises. It feels as though I have to do it through the power of my mind. Just getting lift off feels impossible! I think it has to do with engaging the area where the hamstring was harvested (it's a bit bit weird to talk about your own leg being 'harvested' isn't it?!). The initial lift-off moment makes the side of my knee twinge a little, and the leg just says 'let's not do this'.
Extension doesn't seem to be a problem, although my heel doesn't lift off quite as far as the other leg. I haven't really had to work at this at all - when I woke up from the op my leg was straight and I was told very clearly that extension is the most important thing initially, so I've been keeping it straight (usually with something underneath my calf or ankle) whenever I'm resting. Getting it straight again after bending isn't a problem, but fully squeezing my quad to try and get the heel to lift and push the knee down further makes the base of my knee cap ache, around two of the incisions I think.
The best thing today was going to the beach (oh, and washing my hair!) and walking a bit further than I have done before with the crutches (with bare feet on sand!). I found that walking a bit further lets me get into the rhythm, relax and use my leg a bit more normally. I can put more weight through it now, having realised that I actively have to push down and back when I step with the operated leg - i.e engage muscles! - in order for it to feel 'normal'. Which makes sense - no wonder it feels wobbly if I'm not actually engaging muscles. It's quite a bizarre phenomenon having to re-activate muscles that were all fine and dandy before the operation. It's not that they've had time to waste or get weaker, it's just that they say 'no thanks, not today'.
And the sunshine, that was good! Who'd have thought that on the 1st October we would be in shorts and t-shirt lying on the beach, me doing my physio exercises and Tadas reading a book. It felt like a good idea to soak up the rays while we could - vitamin D is essential for absorbing calcium and I've got some bone tunnels to fill....
(Incidentally, I think I expected to feel some kind of sensation inside my knee - either the fact that bone had been drilled, or the new ACL itself - but I don't feel anything like that (which I'm glad about!). The main sensation comes from the surface incision sites, occasional twinges at the back of my knee where the muscles/tendons are (presumably because of the tendon harvest), and tightness when I bend (from the swelling)).
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